Just like kids
by fairytaleofdust
Summary: After seeing her friend leave the precinct with Colin Hunt, Lanie decides she needs to take action before something really wrong happens. Written after 'The Limey' trauma.


Lanie was going out of the morgue, getting ready for a night of blues and a nice bath, maybe calling Javi for a booty call, when she saw Kate with the British Guy.

"Aw, crap" she uttered, looking through the parking lot for a sign of Castle's Ferrari. Nothing. "I'm gonna kill these two." And as the good friend she was, she gave up on the thoughts of bubble, vanilla delight and Ella, and rushed to Castle's apartment.

He had hardly opened the door when she grabbed him by the throat.

"What the hell are you doing?" she said to a scared face, while at the same time skimming the place for any signs of the stewardess. "She's out with James Bond, did you know?"

"What the hell, Lanie? What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Kate, of course I'm talking about Kate!" she let him go, and his face changed. Bitterness ran through his green eyes, and Lanie could notice something was wrong. "What's with the bimbos, Castle? We all know…"

"She doesn't." He interrupted her, hardly believing she, as Kate's best friend, had the guts to come to his house and attack him like this. Didn't she know?

"What?" said Lanie, an honest confusion on her eyebrows, and for a moment he was puzzled.

"That day, the day she was shot, I held her in my arms. I had her blood in my hands, and I told her that I loved her." Lanie sighed. "When she wakes up, she tells me she didn't remember a thing from that day. But she does, Lanie. Didn't she tell you? She remembers everything. And I had to find this out through the glass. She told a suspect but not me."

"Have you talked to her yet?" Lanie was now worried with this friend right in front of her.

"Talk what? Throw all this in the air, scream at each other, have to hear her say that she doesn't love me back?"

"So that's what you think?" her face now hid a scorn smile, and the desire to punch him in the face came back. "And you decide just to go out, go to Vegas, and bring out the old Castle? Do you think this solves things?"

"It does for me."

"So that's what you want? Hurt her?"

"I'm not hurting her. She's out with Hunt, isn't she? She's ok."

Lanie couldn't hold it any longer, and she slapped Castle's ear. "For God's sake, do yourself a favor and ask her." She then turned on her heels and walked away, without looking back, reaching her phone in her pocket to call Javi. 'Heavy night. Need you.'

Kate was using the relaxing noise of the water coming out from the shower to think about her life. No better way to think than when you have steam all over you. The water came down her body and her face, disguising the tears that were coming out of her eyes. Suddenly, a ringing sound. Someone's at the door. She turned the water off, grabbed a towel and left the bathroom.

The door rang again, now more intensively, as if the person on the other side was in a hurry. She quickly wore her bathrobe and opened the door.

Castle couldn't handle the sight of her on a bathrobe, hair wet, and right in front of her. In his mind, he was just waiting to hear the British accent coming from the room to prove he shouldn't have listened to Lanie. But nothing happened. They were just there, staring at each other.

"Castle" she broke the silence. "What are you doing here? It's late"

He didn't even check the clock before storming out of his house. He checked his watch. It was a quarter past one. It was late.

"I…" he thought of a million excuses, but none was good enough. He decided to just go with the truth. "I have to ask you something"

"Ok" she hesitated, tightening up the nod on her robe and inviting him in. He didn't move.

"I'm fine here." He said, and that scared her. She decided to just wait for him to talk, then.

"When you woke up, after being shot, you told me you didn't remember anything" her hand was trembling and she was out of breath, watching his lips move in that direction, telling what she wasn't ready to hear. "But I heard you, Beckett. With that suspect, from the bombing at Wall Street. You told him you remembered" He heard that? So that's why… is it? Nothing came out of her mouth, and he continued.

"Why did you say that, Beckett? Why did you lie to me?"

"It was too much for me to handle, Castle" she decided to be honest. "I had to digest it, slowly. It was easy for me to forget, and remember it little by little. It hurts too much." She then mentioned everything else, trying to stay away from the final confrontation for as long as she could. "Montgomery's death, his involvement in my mother's death, me being shot in open air."

"When you were down" he continued, noticing she hadn't mentioned what he needed to know "I told you something." Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. "Do you remember that?"

"Yes" she said, nearly dying when his face went from serious to sad, and he clearly was trying to hold his tears. She didn't. "Yes, Rick, I remember."

"Why? Beckett.. Why? Don't you think that was something to be handled carefully? Or it's that unimportant to you?"

"But that doesn't even matter now, does it?" she started using the most powerful tool of women. Throw the guilt back to him. "Not with your flight attendants and Las Vegas"

"You wish" he said, his voice coming out a little bit higher than he wanted. "Only because you want it to be enough."

"What?" she said, clearly confused by his reaction. "Why do you think I hid it, Rick?"

"Because you were too scared to say you don't feel the same!" he was screaming now. She just stared at him, shocked at his stupidity.

"So it's that what you think?" she said, and his mind was blown. He had no idea what was going on, and right now, bringing that stewardess back to the crime scene sounded like the worst idea ever.

"Isn't it obvious? Why else would you hide it?" Somehow, these words seemed stupid to him the moment they left his mouth. Her face agreed to that, and he didn't know what to thing anymore. For the first time, Richard Castle was speechless.

"I made a mistake, Castle, hiding it from you. I was running away from something I didn't wanted to run, but at the same time I didn't wanted to face. And I know it's probably too late now. I was afraid. I couldn't lose everything we had."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a complicated girl, Castle. I'm not like the girls you like"

"I know that. That's why I don't like you. I love you."

When noticing those words coming out of his mouth again, Kate forgot all the '_why's_ and '_but's. _She just wanted this whole fear to be over.

She noticed his arms hesitating towards her, not knowing if it was the right moment to shut up and kiss, and all she wanted was to scream – Yes! Do it! But she didn't. she hesitated. Hesitation seems to be their thing.

"Why do we always have to complicate things?" she said, trying to demonstrate she was tired of questions and excuses and hesitation.

"Because we grow up. Kids don't complicate things" He said. So was he.

"I wish I were a kid, then"

"Hi" he extended his arm for her to shake. "I'm Richard. I like laser guns, helicopters and I really, really like you."

She laughed, and held his hand. "Hi. I'm Kate. I like dogs, and ponies, and I really, really like you too."

Next thing they knew, their mouths were on each other's, their lips and tongues and breathing synchronized in one single desire. They wanted that for so long! He carefully put his hands on her waist, and she pulled them to her back on an embrace. Then, she entwined her long fingers on his hair, pulling his head closer and kissing him with passion.

The next thing can be described on two separated movements by two hands. Hers closed the door with a bang, and his untied her nod. Her silk robe just slid through her body, and touched the ground.


End file.
